NBC NEWS IS THE #1 BROADCAST NET IN TOTAL VIEWERS AND ACROSS ALL DEMOS
NOVEMBER 7, 2018 – NBC News and MSNBC together beat out all television networks across the board for last night’s coverage of the 2018 midterm election. According to Nielsen Media Research, The Vote: America’s Future averaged 10.439 million total viewers during primetime coverage of Election Night, including 3.636 million viewers in the key A25-54 news demographic.
NBC News also won Election Night coverage across the board, beating all broadcast networks in both total viewers and the key A25-54 demo during primetime hours, according to Nielsen Media Research. Anchored by NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt and TODAY co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, and joined by Meet the Press moderator and NBC News political director Chuck Todd, NBC News averaged 5.690 million total viewers during its primetime coverage, including 2.282 million viewers in the A25-54 news demographic and 1.805 million viewers in A18-49. Primetime coverage includes 8:00pm – 11:00pm ET; 7:00pm – 10:00pm CT; 7:00pm – 10:00pm MT, and 8:00pm – 11:00pm PT. MSNBC primetime coverage includes 8:00pm – 11:00pm live across the country.
Besting the broadcast networks across the board, NBC outperformed ABC by 426,000 (+8%) and CBS by 1.831 million (+47%). Among A25-54 viewers, NBC News topped ABC by 325,000 (+17%) and CBS by 946,000 (+71%). In A18-49, NBC led ABC by 135,000 (+8%) and CBS by 752,000 (+71%).
MSNBC’s primetime coverage The Vote: America’s Future, co-anchored by Brian Williams, host of The 11th Hour with Brian Williams, and Rachel Maddow, host of The Rachel Maddow Show, was the cable network’s highest-rated midterm election coverage ever during 8pm-11pmET in both A25-54 and total viewers. MSNBC delivered 4.75 million total viewers and 1.35 million viewers A25-54, more than doubling MSNBC’s 2014 midterm coverage in prime among total viewers (1.69 million) and tripling in A25-54 (.53 million). Extended coverage from 6pm-2amET anchored by Williams and Maddow with NBC News and MSNBC national political correspondent Steve Kornacki at the “Big Board” also delivered a record rating in the time period during a midterm election.
NBC News Digital saw 20M video starts across all platforms and devices to midterm election content. It was the highest trafficked day and the best day for MSNBC.com video of 2018. On average, viewers consumed more than 15 minutes of on-net live stream video, and NBCNews.com and the NBC news mobile app saw their highest page view day for all of 2018.
NBC News and MSNBC together also beat all other networks on Election Night 2016. According to Nielsen Media Research data, the two networks averaged 17.1 million total viewers during primetime coverage of Election Night, including an average of 7.7 million viewers in the key news demographic of A25-54.
NOVEMBER 6, 2018:
Primetime Election Coverage (8P-11P broadcast)
| Total Viewers | A25-54 Rating | A25-54 Viewers | A18-49 Rating | A18-49 Viewers | |
| NBC | 5.690 | 1.89 | 2.282 | 1.40 | 1.805 |
| CBS | 3.859 | 1.11 | 1.336 | 0.82 | 1.053 |
| ABC | 5.264 | 1.62 | 1.957 | 1.30 | 1.670 |
# # #
NBC NEWS AND MSNBC
More Americans watch NBC News and MSNBC than any news organization in the world. NBC News’ award-winning television news broadcasts include TODAY, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, Meet the Press with Chuck Todd, Dateline NBC, and TODAY with Kathie Lee and Hoda, as well as primetime specials and breaking news reports. For the 2017-2018 season, all four NBC News marquee broadcasts were #1 in the key news demo for the third year in a row. MSNBC is the premier cable destination for breaking and live news coverage, in-depth analysis, and influential voices – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The rapidly-growing NBC News Digital Group, along with the SiriusXM TODAY Show and MSNBC radio channels and NBC News Radio on the iHeartMedia 24/7 News Network, provides continuous content to consumers wherever they are, whenever they want it.
NBC News and MSNBC are part of the NBCUniversal News Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast Corporation. For more information about NBCUniversal, please visit www.NBCUniversal.com.
# # #
For more information contact:
TJ Ducklo
NBC News
212-664-1913
Dana Klinghoffer
NBC News
212-664-4088
